How CEOs Can Be ‘Partners With God’

CEOs as “partners with God”? That’s how the Vatican, for all of its criticism of free markets, views corporate leaders. But it’s a lofty description that comes with a high bar.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Ghanaian who regularly appears on short-lists of future papal candidates, described the private sector as a “partner with God in bringing [the earth’s] resources” to humanity. Turkson spoke at the opening day of the Fortune+Time Global Forum in Rome, a historic event at which global business leaders are crafting a social compact with Pope Francis on creating a more inclusive global economy.

Turkson offered “an invitation to business to recognize themselves in this transformative role…as co-creators with God [producing] good for humanity.”

At the same time, however, Turkson urged corporate leaders to take a more “holistic view of business and its activities” — and put the “well-being of the human person,” not profits, at the center of their strategies.

In his interview with veteran talk show host Charlie Rose, Turkson also exhorted business leaders to ensure that “work itself is dignified.”

“Work expresses creativity” and enables people to deploy their “God-endowed riches,” said Turkson, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and was recently named the Pope’s point-person on poverty issues. Turkson specifically raised concerns about the impact of fast-changing technology, such as artificial intelligence, on good jobs.

While crediting markets with lifting billions out of poverty, Turkson argued that the spread of capitalism has also “widened the gap between rich and poor.” He urged global companies to deploy reforms in their supply chains to battle extreme poverty in places like sub-Saharan Africa.

Apple, GE Suppliers Linked to Rebel-held Myanmar Tin Mine

From a remote corner of northeastern Myanmar, an insurgent army sells tin ore to suppliers of some of the world’s largest consumer companies.

More than 500 companies, including leading brands such as smartphone maker Appleaapl, coffee giant Starbuckssbux and luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co tif, list among their suppliers Chinese-controlled firms that indirectly buy ore from the Man Maw mine near Myanmar’s border with China, a Reuters examination of the supply chain found.

The mine is controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which the United States placed under sanctions for alleged narcotics trafficking in 2003. The seven companies extracting tin from the mine are all owned or controlled by Wa military and government leaders, Wa officials and people with close ties to UWSA leadership told Reuters.

This potentially puts companies, which also include industrial conglomerate General Electric @General Electrige, at risk of violating sanctions that forbid “direct or indirect” dealings with blacklisted groups, according to a former and a serving U.S. official and lawyers with expertise in sanctions enforcement.

Several sanctions experts said the U.S. government was unlikely to fine companies who unwittingly used the Myanmar tin. Still, it may force them to shift to new suppliers, they said.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman said U.S. sanctions “generally prohibit U.S. companies from engaging in any direct or indirect transactions or dealings with individuals or entities” on a blacklist, but declined further comment on specific circumstances.

The situation illustrates the difficulties facing multinationals in monitoring supply chains that have grown increasingly complex.

Following a 2012 U.S. regulation, companies have spent billions of dollars scrutinizing whether certain minerals used in their products come from mines controlled by armed groups in Central Africa.

But the regulations do not require them to assess the origins of minerals from other conflict zones.

Apple, Tiffany and GE, and other companies contacted by Reuters, said that to fulfill those regulations they looked to an audit program designed by the industry group Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI).

A CFSI program director said the group was “aware of tin exports from Myanmar to other countries and of security and human rights issues in Myanmar.” The group said it was updating its audit requirements to include “a broader definition of conflict-affected and high-risk areas.”

Tin supply chain expert at monitoring group Global Witness, Sophia Pickles, said companies must not wholly outsource due diligence responsibility to a scheme that has exclusively focused on central Africa.

“Companies, not schemes, bear the primary responsibility for ensuring that supply chains are responsible,” she said.

Civil War

Most of the tin mined globally is used as solder in electronics, for making batteries and plating.

The Man Maw mine roiled the global tin market when huge quantities of high-grade ore were discovered around 2013. Annual production is now estimated at about 33,000 tons of tin concentrate, more than a 10th of global output of the metal.

The mine is controlled by the UWSA, the strongest of the myriad armed groups that have kept Myanmar in a state of near-perpetual civil war for decades. Reuters visited the remote mine last month, the first international media organization to do so.

Interviews with officials running the mine, UWSA leaders and executives at Asian tin suppliers, together with an examination of public disclosures of suppliers made by companies in regulatory filings, indicate Wa tin likely ends up in an array of products made by U.S. and other international companies.

Tin from Man Maw provides revenue critical to the survival of the self-proclaimed Wa State and its rulers, who have refused to disarm or participate in Myanmar’s peace process.

“There are dozens of trucks carrying tin ore to China every morning,” the head of the Wa territory foreign affairs office, Zhao Guo An, told Reuters. “Tin mining is the pillar of our economy. It’s the biggest source of income.”

While Washington has lifted most sanctions on Myanmar, some have been kept in place, including those aimed at the UWSA. The group and several of its leaders are blacklisted under the Kingpin Act over accusations of trafficking in heroin and methamphetamine. UWSA leaders deny involvement in narcotics, saying the accusations are a smear by political opponents.

Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department, said the findings highlighted the need for thorough due diligence.

Two companies in Apple’s supply chain, the world’s No. 1 tin producer Yunnan Tin Co and leading Taiwan-based solder maker Shenmao Technology, told Reuters that some tin they bought was from the Wa mine.

Mandy Gan, a tin analyst from China’s leading mineral research company, Asian Metal, and another tin expert, both of whom visited the UWSA mine this year, said many other Chinese smelting firms supplying global consumer goods makers also bought tin from the Man Maw mine.

Sanctions experts said even the indirect use of the tin might be considered a violation of U.S. sanctions law, which does not require authorities to prove intent. A U.S. government official involved in Myanmar policy consulted on Reuters’ findings said the government was likely to investigate any ties to the UWSA.

Still, Washington-based sanctions attorney Erich Ferrari said it was unlikely the Treasury Department would initiate an enforcement action against companies for an issue so deep in the supply chain. Once the ties were publicized, however, authorities could impose penalties if the companies did not wind down the transactions and find new suppliers, he said.

Supply Chain

The chain connecting some of the world’s best-known brands with a mine in one the most inaccessible corners of Southeast Asia has many links.

One key intermediary is state-owned Yunnan Cultural Industry International (YCII), based in Yunnan, southwestern China, which said in a statement on its website that it enjoys “a long-term, stable strategic partnership” with the UWSA statelet.

YCII declined several interview requests.

YCII is, in turn, a major supplier of tin to the world’s top producer, Yunnan Tin, also based in Yunnan.

Yunnan Tin supplies many companies, including big contract manufacturers such as Foxconn Technology and, indirectly, Pegatron, whose clients include Apple. It also supplies major solder makers such as Shenmao Technology, also a supplier to Pegatron.

“Myanmar is not considered a conflict-affected area by CFSI…As long as smelters present a certified sourcing document, that’s acceptable for us,” said Tim Lin, an executive overseeing sourcing at Taiwan-based Shenmao, who said about a quarter of its supply of the metal came from Yunnan Tin.

In the last two years, Yunnan Tin has also shipped more than 12,000 tons of metal to the United States, according to shipment data from U.S.-based trade tracking company Panjiva.

More than 500 publicly traded companies in the United States say their suppliers use tin from Yunnan Tin or Yuntinic Resources, its San Mateo, Calif.-based division, according to a review of the supply chain disclosures consumer companies make to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Two members of Yunnan Tin’s board, vice chairwoman Yang Yimin and secretary and vice general manager Pan Wenhao, confirmed in interviews that a “portion” of the company’s tin came from the UWSA-operated mine.

Yunnan Tin mixes the Wa tin with metal from mines in central and southwestern China, said Pan, before processing it into products such as tin paste.

That means it is impossible to say for certain which shipments from the company contain Wa tin, but Pan estimated Yunnan Tin’s purchases from the mine account for about a third of its total annual tin consumption, or at least 16,500 tons.

Apple said in a statement it worked with suppliers to help them meet stringent standards, “and those who are ultimately unable or unwilling to comply are removed from our supply chain.”

“While we have no evidence of illegal tin from Myanmar in our products, we’ll continue to investigate, address any issues we find and do all we can to raise standards and protect human rights,” it said.

Foxconn said it “enforced stringent supplier management requirements in accordance with international and local conflict minerals legislation and has proactively communicated these requirements to our suppliers.”

It added that less than 1 percent of its tin was procured from Yunnan Tin, all of which was used in products for a “single, non-U.S.-based customer.”

Pegatron said it carried out “annual due diligence on suppliers and encourage them to source from validated conflict-free supply chains.”

“Pegatron will continue working with customers and international organizations to investigate and source minerals responsibly,” the company added.

From Jewelry to Appliances

Companies that sell consumer products in the United States are required by the Dodd-Frank Act to publish their suppliers of tin and other minerals.

Among the companies listing Yunnan Tin, Tiffany said one of its suppliers had indirectly sourced a “very small amount of tin” from the Chinese smelter for use in silver solder for jewelry and hollowware.

The company added that, as Yunnan Tin was certified as conflict-free by the CFSI, “use of this smelter by our vendors is consistent with our Conflict Minerals Policy.”

Starbucks said small amounts of Yunnan Tin metal, sourced from second or third party suppliers, went into the ovens in its coffee shops.

The company had received no information indicating it was using minerals from Myanmar, a spokeswoman said, but was pushing suppliers for more detailed sourcing disclosures.

A GE spokesman said the company strived to use ethical sourcing in its mineral supply chain, adding it had “noted the concerns raised by Reuters and will address them through our internal process and with our external partners.”

A spokeswoman from discount retailer Targettgt said in a statement it was “committed to responsible business conduct.”

“We take these allegations very seriously, and we are looking into this,” the statement said.

Why Shares of These Three Apple Suppliers All Lost 6% Today

It’s becoming increasingly obvious to anyone paying attention that Apple is planning a fairly modest upgrade for the iPhone this year. As rumor after rumor emerges from Cupertino about this fall’s annual refresh, unofficially dubbed the iPhone 7, the only change is getting attention is the purported removal of the headphone jack.

The impact so far has been to depress Apple’s huge fan base along with its stock price. Shares of Apple are down almost 10% so far this year, closing on Tuesday at $94.04, with the company experiencing its first ever quarterly decline in iPhone sales. Analysts say the stock is unlikely to return to its former highs of almost $133 last reached a year ago until iPhone sales resume growing.

But Apple aapl is hardly the only company depending on iPhone sales. Apple’s many suppliers were crushed on Tuesday, as formerly bullish analysts reduced their estimates of sales for the iPhone 7 while noting the impact on companies beyond Apple. Investors paid little heed to a more bullish report from Cowen & Co. analyst Timothy Arcuri, who said that worries about the iPhone 7 are “obscuring a powder keg” that will come when the 2017 iPhone arrives.

Shares of InvenSense, Cirrus Logic, and Skyworks Solutions, three leading chip suppliers for the iPhone, each lost 6% on Tuesday, after Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell warned of “much more disappointing” iPhone sales in the second half of 2016. He downgraded Cirrus and Skyworks to “sector weight” from “overweight.”

InvenSense invn makes sensor chips like gyroscopes that allow the iPhone to measure motion. Skyworks swks supplies wireless radio chips that allow the phone to connect to mobile networks.

Cirrus crus makes audio chips—and in theory it could actually benefit from the loss of the headphone jack, if Apple enhances the sound output with newer and more expensive digital audio features. But that wouldn’t be enough to offset overall slower iPhone sales, McConnell says.

Your iPhone Is About to Get a Longer Life

“Cirrus Logic stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries in terms of content in the iPhone 7 related to the transition to digital headsets, we ultimately don’t believe this will be enough to offset a 15% to 20% decline in iPhone 7 shipments,” McConnell wrote in a research report.

Also on Tuesday, Citigroup analyst Jim Suva reduced his forecast for iPhone sales over the next six months, writing that the trend of iPhone owners waiting longer to upgrade will get worse. He also cites another unexpected factor will cut into this year’s already slow iPhone sales—Brexit. Because of the United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union a likely economic slowdown also means fewer iPhones will be sold.

All-American iPhone Would Cost Only $100 More, Magazine Estimates

An iPhone assembled in the United States from parts mostly made in the United States would cost about $100 more than the current model which is manufactured overseas, according to a crude estimate by Technology Review magazine.

The current iPhone 6S sells for $750 and costs about $230 to manufacture research firm IHS has said, though Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned investors not to rely on such cost estimates. “I’ve never seen one that is anywhere close to being accurate,” he said last year.

In a report called “The All-American iPhone” published on Thursday, the MIT-based magazine took the IHS estimates as a starting point to model how much more expensive it might be to assemble the iPhone in the United States and use more American-made parts, as presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have advocated.

Just moving manufacturing from China to the U.S. would increase the cost of labor as well as adding expenses to ship component parts from Asia, Jason Dedrick, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, estimated for the magazine. Assembling phones domestically would cost $30 to $40 per phone, versus $10 for the current Chinese work, Dedrick concluded. That would raise the retail price of the phone about 5%, to $788.

Switching all parts in the iPhone to U.S. suppliers would be much more difficult. Of Apple’s aapl currently disclosed 766 suppliers, 346 are in China and another 167 are in Japan and Taiwan. Only 69 are based in the United States, including Corning glw which supplies the glass screens on the iPhone.

Building as many of the components domestically as possible would be less economical, as plants would have be to be constructed and the new factories wouldn’t have the same large scale as the Asian producers. But Dedrick estimated that doing so would add another $30 to $40 to the cost of making the phone and add a total of about $100 to the retail price, pushing it to $850.

Digital Supply Chain Startup Tradeshift Raises $75 Million

Tradeshift, a Danish-born startup that sells digital invoicing and supply-chain software, has disclosed a $75 million venture infusion, which will be used mainly to expand its global presence and add new services such as business-to-business loans.

The Series D round included new and existing backers such as Data Collective, HSBC, and American Express Venture. The funding brings Tradeshift’s total backing to approximately $205 million. It is the same amount as the company’s last big round in February 2014.

Tradeshift didn’t disclose its valuation officially, but sources close to the company estimate it at close to $600 million.

Tradeshift specializes in systems that help manufacturing organizations streamline their transactions and communications with suppliers. Its software, which is sold as a cloud service, manages processes such as invoicing.

The San Francisco-based company says “dozens” of Fortune 1000 companies have signed up as customers, representing 800,000 users. Some of Tradeshift’s accounts include logistics giant DHL, Zurich Insurance Group, technology distributor Tech Data, and French water management company Veolia.

“Tradeshift’s deep engineering for global scale transaction volume, machine learning for seamless invoice processing, fraud prevention, and 360-degree mobile workforce enablement, are the very things that enable the high-speed, risk-free solution deployments powering its global growth and its customers’ success,” said Data Collective co-managing partner Matt Ocko, who has joined the company’s board.

Tradeshift’s platform is used to manage “billions of dollars per month” in business-to-business transactions. The company’s CEO and co-founder Christian Lanng said it plans expansions in services for spending management, trade financing, and lending.

One of Tradeshift’s strategic partners is China-based Baiwang, a relationship it disclosed back in March. Baiwang helps cross-border trading partners manage Chinese business tax policies.

Tradeshift’s most visible direct competitor is San Francisco-based Taulia, which raised a $46 million late-stage round in January, bringing its total backing to $130 million. Its customers include Coca-Cola Bottling, Pfizer pfe, and John Deere. Both of them are growing quickly in the shadow of the two-decades-old granddaddy in business-to-business transactions, SAP Ariba sap.

UPS and SAP Push On-Demand 3D Printing

Shipping giant United Parcel Service thinks 3D printing has come of age and aims to capitalize on that. On Wednesday the company said it is launching a distributed network that will enable customers to order and receive 3D printed parts quickly—within a day in some cases.

UPS upsstarted down this road last year by putting 3D printing stations from Fast Radius into its UPS Store locations. Now it’s teaming up with SAP sap to integrate SAP’s supply chain capabilities to create what a UPS exec called an “end-to-end system” that spans the initial order to final delivery of a product. And it’s putting a major 3D printing facility at its Louisville, Ky., shipping hub.

The supply chain smarts are needed: What good does it do to order a part in a hurry if the materials to print it are out of stock?

For those who don’t follow this field, 3D printing, sometimes called additive manufacturing, is a process that deposits layer upon layer of material in a pattern. It’s like an inkjet printer but one that uses plastic or a composite instead of ink. The printer deposits material in a pattern following a blueprint until a three-dimensional structure emerges.

Broadly speaking, this process can print out anything from tiny circuit boards to automotive components. MIT researchers have even demonstrated the ability to 3D print a house in a day.

The UPS network news comes out of SAP’s big Sapphire Now conference and the integrated service should be available by the first quarter of 2017. At that point it should be possible, in some cases, for UPS “to take an order in the early evening and have the part made and delivered the next day,” said Alan Amling, vice president of UPS Supply Chain Solutions.

This is an attractive proposition for companies wanting to reduce the amount of physical inventory they have to carry. “Right now many companies have a lot of just-in-case inventory, parts that can sit on the shelf for years,” he said. What the UPS network promises is more just-in-time delivery.

The network is about more than the printing. In theory, the system will see from an incoming order if the desired part is 3D-ready and if so whether it makes more sense to print it on demand or, if the part is available somewhere, to pull it from stock. It would also calculate costs and tax implications of either option, Amling said.

When the integration is done, once an ordered part is deemed “3D printable” the process can be handled manually through an approval process or automatically through a rules-based process that routes the order, said Gil Perez, SAP senior vice president of digital assets and Internet of things

UPS customers are using 3D printing to create real parts and components, not just novelty items and prototypes, he said. Current UPS 3D printing customers include GoPro gpro, the camera maker; HumanScale, which manufactures ergonomic furniture; and Stober Drive, which makes gear boxes.

“We really see the 3D print revolution going to industrial use,” Amling added. “We see this as the Shutterfly of manufacturing.” Shutterfly sfly is an online service that lets consumers easily upload photos and create custom photo albums on demand.

For more on 3D printing, watch:

Research firm IDC would likely agree. It estimates the market for 3D printing will hit $26.7 billion in 2019, up from $11 billion last year, a 27% compound annual growth rate.

Foxconn Founder Warns Layoffs Are Needed to Revive Sharp

Foxconn founder Terry Gou said there would have to be layoffs at Sharp to turn around the ailing Japanese company, but pledged that wages would rise and profit-sharing would again be the norm.

“Unfortunately, a close review of the company’s operations makes it clear that the level of inefficiency throughout Sharp means that a turnaround … can only take place if there is a reduction in costs, and that comes with a very regrettable need to reduce Sharp’s workforce,” Gou wrote in an open letter, seen by Reuters, to Sharp staff late on Thursday.

Sharp earlier reported its annual losses trebled from a year earlier.

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has battled to seal a $3.5 billion deal to give it a two-thirds stake in Sharp as the Japanese display maker seeks a return to profit in the face of slowing smartphone sales.

The letter said staff cuts would be carried out “responsibly and sensitively,” but didn’t provide figures. A person familiar with the matter said cuts could total 3,000 in Japan, and more when Sharp’s global operations are included.

Foxconn confirmed the letter was a personal note to all Sharp employees from Gou and Tai Jeng-wu, Foxconn’s vice chairman and the newly-appointed CEO at Sharp.

Sharp named Tai on Thursday to succeed Kozo Takahashi, becoming the first outsider to lead a company that started out making belt buckles and mechanical pencils a century ago.

Tai’s 30-year Foxconn career includes running its vast operations at Shenzhen in China. He also played a key role in the Sharp stake negotiations, people at Foxconn told Reuters.

“Tai is No.2 at Hon Hai. He speaks Japanese. He was selected from a comprehensive perspective,” Takahashi said at an earnings briefing, referring to Foxconn by its formal name, Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Tai will be one of nine new board members at Sharp, Takahashi said, adding Sharp aims to finalize the stake sale to Foxconn by the end of June, earlier than an initial October 5 deadline.

PERSONAL GUARANTEE

Gou’s letter underscores how last month’s signing of the stake deal was just the start of a turnaround at Sharp, which has struggled even after two bank bail-outs.

The billionaire Foxconn founder will personally guarantee the buyback of 25 billion yen ($230 million) worth of preferred shares that Sharp issued to a corporate turnaround fund last year in exchange for a bail-out. Gou said his move was aimed to speed up a merit-based stock reward program for Sharp employees.

Gou believes profit-sharing is key to retaining talent, said a person familiar with his thinking.

“I can also assure you that the wage cuts and reductions in year-end bonuses are a thing of the past,” Gou wrote to Sharp staff, saying pay and annual bonuses would return to their original levels as of this month.

SMARTPHONE SLOWDOWN

Sharp and Japanese peers such as Sony, once synonymous with cutting-edge electronics, have in recent years been out-maneuvered by upstart Asian rivals.

A takeover by Foxconn should help Sharp expand sales channels for its displays. In return, Foxconn will gain control of Sharp’s advanced display technology, and strengthen its pricing power with Apple, a major client of both companies.

Foxconn’s display-making affiliate Innolux will also benefit from cooperation with Sharp, Innolux Chairman H.C. Tuan said on Thursday. Tuan, who announced his resignation, will take on a role as technology adviser to both Innolux and Sharp, Foxconn said.

Toyota, Other Major Japanese Firms Hit by Quake Damage, Supply Disruptions

Toyota, the world’s biggest-selling automaker, said on Sunday it would suspend much of its production at plants across Japan this week after earthquakes in the country’s south led to a shortage of parts, while some other manufacturers extended stoppages due to damage to factories.

The earthquakes on Thursday and Saturday, which killed at least 41 people, reflected the vulnerability of Japanese companies to supply chain disruptions caused by natural disasters, and also highlighted the “just in time” philosophy pioneered by Toyota and followed by many others.

Companies had made efforts to address these problems after a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which led to a nuclear disaster and nearly 20,000 deaths, badly dented output. The way that companies deal with the impact of the latest quakes will likely show how robust these changes have been.

Honda HMC said it would keep production suspended at its motorcycle plant near the quake-hit city of Kumamoto in southern Japan through Friday, though Nissan said it would resume operations at its plants north of the epicenter from Monday.

Electronics giant Sony SNE said production would remain halted at its image sensor plant in Kumamoto, as the electronics giant assessed structural and equipment damage. But the company said it had resumed full operations at its plants in nearby Nagasaki and Oita which also produce the sensors—used in smartphone cameras, including the Apple APPL iPhone.

Also on Sunday, semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics confirmed it had sustained damage to some equipment at its plant in Kumamoto which produces microcontroller chips for automobiles. Having suspended operations following the first earthquake on Thursday, the chipmaker said it would assess damage at the entire facility before deciding when to resume production.

For more on Toyota, watch:

Toyota TM said it would suspend operations in stages at most of its vehicle assembly plants across Japan for roughly a week beginning Monday as it was unable to source parts from some of its suppliers including affiliate Aisin Seiki.

Earlier this year, Toyota offered limited details about what changes it made to its production system after the 2011 quake exposed the vulnerability of the “just in time” system, which allows companies to operate without big and costly inventories and instead receive small quantities of parts from suppliers only when needed.

Japanese supply analysts have said that other domestic suppliers have stuck to the core ideas of “lean” production, although they have made moves to make it more resilient to natural disasters.

Since 2011, Toyota, which spent weeks at the time identifying how its suppliers had been affected by the quake, and Nissan have both developed supply chain databases which offer a detailed view of their supplier base to identify how their supply chain may be disrupted during emergencies.

Aisin Seiki, whose plants in Kumamoto sustained damage from the quake, said it would make the parts produced in the quake-hit city in other facilities at home and abroad. The parts include sun roofs, door handles, semiconductors, and other products.

“If there’s a part we make in Kumamoto which is identical to a part we make at the Aisin headquarters in Aichi (in central Japan) we’ll shift production there,” an Aisin spokesman said.

Aisin stressed that it had kept to the “just in time” system, and hadn’t built up big inventories, but instead did have robust plans for shifting production elsewhere.

“As a Toyota-affiliated company, we don’t hold significant inventory,” the spokesman said. “So as a rule we wouldn’t have been holding inventories to last, say, one week or a month.”

So far this year, domestic production has accounted for roughly 40% of Toyota’s global output, with nearly half of all its vehicles produced in Japan exported overseas.

Renesas, which suffered significant damage at its semiconductor plants in northeastern Japan following the 2011 quake, leading to months of delays to the global supply chain for automakers, previously said it had not been stocking extra inventory for risk management purposes since that disaster.

However, it has begun to standardize more parts across various models to enable in house production at alternative plants during emergencies.

Industrial Robot Sales Jumped in 2015 Thanks to Cars, China

Global sales of industrial robots rose 8% in 2015, driven by demand from the automotive industry and China, the World Robotics Federation said on Tuesday.

Articulated robots—robots with rotary joints—were the most in demand. So-called cobots, which collaborate and work side by side with humans, are also gaining in popularity and are almost ready for routine use in industry.

The number of robots sold exceeded 240,000 for the first time. China cemented its position as the leading market with a rise of 16% to 66,000 units, although this was only half the growth of 30% that the federation had predicted.

The figure includes sales by local Chinese suppliers as well as international manufacturers such as Kuka, Fanuc, and ABB.

In Europe, sales rose 9% to nearly 50,000, powered by eastern Europe, while sales in north America rose 11% to 34,000, the federation said.